Month: November 2016

Today I found a book in my shelf. It was kept there for years and was unnoticed. It was dust laden. I wiped off all the dust and made it look good. It was the only book with many empty pages.

The pages have turned yellow. The most weird thing about that book was that many of the chapters were either incomplete or were scribbled.

I somehow managed to read the faded initials about the book title and the author. I kept on looking at it and suddenly a lot of thoughts took birth in my mind. I felt as if I had been deceiving myself for years.

I was the only hunter in the jungle to hunt myself.

The book was named “My life” by “Me”.

Yes, every one of us possesses this book of ours to decorate it with the ink of moments and feelings. But none of us bother to even open it for a while.

We are busy writing books of superiority, jealousy, achievements, money, bluffing, and showoffs. Achievements are worthless if you achieve them at cost of your happiness. At the end you will only be left with a good resume to show but no happy moments to share.

No matter if the pages of my book have turned yellow but I am happy at least I possess it now while many of us have already mishandled it handling the other books being influenced by this deceptive world.

So, go and find your yellow pages of life on your shelf of inner self. I am sure you too will find them lying somewhere in corner beneath other books.

Olympic fever has gone. The channels are now busy elsewhere. Few new faces appeared on the screen whom no one had ever heard of or seen in sports because they were not given exposure by media except when they were drawing closure to win medal in Olympics. It’s very unfortunate that such a highly populated country could not produce enough sports persons for Olympics despite having a talent pool. Most of the sports persons in India complain of lack of resources, good coaches, funds or infrastructure. No doubt it is true. But if we look at P.T. Usha, Milkha Singh, Mary Com, Karnam Malleshwari, Vijender Singh, Sushil Kumar or Gagan Narang, they all come from humble background and did not have adequate facilities yet they never let their spirits go down. I think what lacks today is the mind reading coach and failure to understand one’s skills and state of mind.

For a player, there is no other power like power of being “in-form”. Most sportspersons’ career get cut short not because they lack sports skills of that game, but because they fail to get access to the ‘state’ that can help them reach to the place in their mind where those skills are stored. According to Ram Verma, an NLP Coach, “A state, is a sum total of the hundreds of processes taking place in our mind and body. In fact, it is the sum total of our experiences that we create neuro-physiologically (brain and body).This state could be Resourceful (confidence, joy, creativity, belief) or Unresourceful (phobia, confusion, guilt, frustration). Because of this state we generate our response, verbally or non-verbally (posture breathing or physical moment). As a sportsperson, you know that your physiology is one of the most powerful tools to enjoy being in-form. Physiology is the quality of body movement, breathing pattern, nerve energy, posture and muscle tension. Physiology is the lever that can lift your spirit on fields. Once you bring out quality change in your physiology, you change your mind fast and without fail. Quality postures lift the confidence of yours and your team members.” A simple exercise can do wonders and give instant energy.

Try Ram Verma and Milan Singh’s method of being ‘in-form’ instantly. Few steps but many benefits.

We have always heard of placing the “Right person” at “Right place” and at the “Right time”. If we make mistakes in new hiring, we face serious ramifications down the line.
In short, if we don’t get the people piece right, everything else is a waste. That’s where cultural fit happens.

A Three- Legged Stool
Take a look at a typical job description and we always find two areas well-represented.

The first is “Core Competencies.” These are skill set needed for the job and may include strong financial management skills, strong recruitment skills or business development skills.
The second is “Required Experience”: 8 to 9 years for an operations manager, 4 years post graduation experience for a recruiter, 12 years of minimum experience for a Project manager, etc, etc.
Both of these areas “competencies and experience” play an important role in finding the right candidate. But these alone are not enough. What’s typically missing – the third leg of the stool: “Culture Fit”.

Components of Job Description

Cultural fit refers to matching a candidate to an organization’s working norms – it’s the match up of the candidate’s values, management approach, and decision- making style with those of the organization at large.

Right cultural fit requires close and deliberate attention to number of things.

Following are the five most important ways that we must consider for right cultural fit:

You can find answers to these questions by identifying and meeting with people who have fair understanding of your organization– the board, junior and senior staff members, etc.– and by asking them to describe your style and culture. That’s how we get insights about our culture.

2) Decide what you want.(Success profile)

A Success Profile is a summary and prioritization of the most important characteristics in open position.

3) Be upfront when hiring.(Be transparent about the role requirement)

Like- long working hours, excessive travelling, 6 days week, no team handling, 24*7 availability, etc.

4) Don’t rely completely on assessment tools.(Hiring is always part Science and part Art)

Personality assessments, screening tests, and other psychologically-based evaluation tools can be helpful, but they don’t tell the entire story. Use these tools, but don’t ignore the insights you derive from face- to-face conversations, references, and that old standby, your gut feeling.

5) Don’t try to change it all at once.(Don’t make drastic changes in one go)

There are situations where there is a legitimate need to make a quick and drastic change in style and direction in a particular position. Keep in mind, however, that the change agent you bring in can have an unintended ripple effect across the rest part of the organization.
E.g. You hire a CEO who was brought in to fix a sagging bottom line, his smart & technical competencies helped him drive the organization back on track within a few months of his hiring but on other hand senior staff started moving out the door as they were not happy with his top down approach.
Initially that CEO was a right fit for the position but actually he was a “culturally misfit”.

So, great hires result when all three legs of the stool – core competencies, experience, and cultural fit – are taken into account. And while assessing cultural fit is necessarily the most subjective of the three, its effect on the rest of the organization, for better or for worse, is always significant.

Sitting on the bench of Nigam Bodh Ghat in Delhi few years back, I was silently watching the last rituals of my uncle-in-law being performed. There must have been more than fifteen bodies burning under different sheds. I was wondering the amount of wood being consumed in one cremation ground and imaging lacs of such grounds all over the country where the wood is being consumed. Relatives sitting nearby were discussing the rising rate of wood and how dying was becoming expensive day by day. One of the workers of cremation ground was sitting on his hunches smiled and said, “Babu un garib logon ka socho jara, jo do waqt ser bhar khana nahi kha sakte, jalane ke liye lakdi kaise kharidege” Very true! Everyone said in unison. He started narrating an interesting true story which went like this:-

Once,a rich Seth came to the same Ghat to perform the last rites for his dead wife. After the rites were performed, his relatives started departing. When only his family was left he too was asked to leave but he insisted on staying there for some time. Lost in deep thought, he suddenly noticed a small poor boy stealthily pulling a half burnt log of wood from each burning pyre. Shocked at the weird act of that boy Seth stopped him from pulling another log and bluntly asked the reason for doing so. Trembling with fear he knelt before Seth and joined his hands seeking mercy. He told the Seth that his mother was lying dead and he did not have money to buy wood so he was pulling logs from the burning pyres. Seth sighed and took the boy to the Taal (a place to store wood) and bought sufficient wood and gave it to the boy. Seth decided there and then to regularly donate and leave enough wood for the poor people so no one goes without performing the last rites of their loved ones for want of money. Even today after his death his family is doing the same favor for poor and destitute. There was sighing of relief on everyone’s face. This was the story of one cremation ground but such favors are hardly heard anywhere else.

I was wondering whether there would be sufficient wood left for the coming generation as forests are vanishing day by day and no one is bothered. It was a serious issue. We all get inspired by such stories but in a next moment we all forget. Planting trees today have become a fashion statement. Tree plantation becomes a war cry on World Environment Day. Most of the time, it is done to grab media attention and posing to fit in the frames. Only if we all plant and also take care of trees, a lot of difference could be made. And if planting a tree becomes first ritual on the birth of a baby, perhaps the last ritual would not become so painful.

According to Matsya Purana, tree plantation is a pious action. Varaha Purana says, Moksha (liberation from birth and death cycle) can be achieved if one plants a fruit giving tree for others’ benefit. Our seers and poets found a unique method to conservation of trees by worshipping them. We too can find various ways to do so. What better month could be than Monsoon itself for such pious act? I have done my part, won’t you do yours?

This is an excerpt taken from Dr. Devdutt Pattnaik’s article on Leadership published in The Economic Times on Oct.24, 2015.
There was once a gigantic 100-year-old tree in the middle of the great forest. When woodcutters came to chop it down, the tree said, ‘If you can be patient, wait for the spring to pass, so that my flowers can feed the bees and butterflies, and maybe for the summer to pass, so that my fruits can feed the bats and squirrels. When you do cut, cut me branch by branch, for there are birds who live on these branches, and monkeys too, and snakes. Make sure I do not fall where there are saplings germinating so that they do not die before they have a chance to live. Yes, take my wood, but with least problems to all those who depend on me.’ The woodcutters were impressed by the tree’s wisdom.
A leader is like that ancient tree, who thinks about others who are dependent on him for his decisions. Often the corporations take small policy decision which benefit only a small group but ignores the larger impact it would have on the market. Their decision is like falling of the great tree, and when the tree falls the whole ecosystem is destroyed. You, being the future Managers should be capable of taking correct decision at correct time. One small incorrect decision can destroy the entire system and hampers productivity. Therefore decision making skill has become a very important tool in today’s scenario.